By: Bill Maitland
Don’t you hate those sand traps, whether on the fairway or near the green? You are having a wonderful game of golf, and you are even in the running for a win. You start to think what sort of a score you will have if you continue to play in the way you have played so far. Then, disaster, your simple chip is off line and heading for the greenside bunker.
Bunker play must be easy, it really must be. The professionals would rather be in a bunker than in the longish grass near the green. They even play to be in one at times. They are so adept at bunker play that they are confident of getting the ball near the hole on most occasions.
Your object is to get the ball onto the green. This is priority number one. Not beside the hole but on the green! You will probably need two puts to finish your hole. This means three strokes from the bunker.
What if you left your ball in the bunker after your first attempt at hitting it out? Answer is that this is a shot wasted. You tried to finesse your bunker shot to get it near the hole, and you left your ball in the sand. Bad thinking.
Stop thinking about your score. Just think what is important and do it. The important thing is to get your ball on the green. Even if this means that your ball will most likely finish on the other side of the green. At least you are on and where you may have been if your pitch had found the green. You would have needed two puts from where your pitch finished. The only difference was your gentle excursion into the bunker which at most should only cost your one shot.
Do this first, and then you can think about putting. Think one shot at a time. Always. In every situation.
Have the ball opposite your left foot. Stand along a line a little left of the target, hit from out to in with good follow through, Hit about one and a half inches behind the ball and take all the sand like a divot, forgetting about the ball. Just think about taking the sand. Happy bunker play.
